Fear and Politics
Fear is a powerful primitive emotion – and no surprise that it is used in politics
Fear is a powerful tool and rational and irrational fears can sweep through societies, often egged on by politicians. Interestingly fearful brains can be ascribed to one side of the political spectrum, and fearful brains are easier to manipulate – sometimes.
As I write this, we are in the fifth wave of the covid19 pandemic (or fourth depending on location and what you count as a wave).
However, the response has been muted – in Switzerland we reached an all-time peak hitting over 12’000 cases on one day. Yet the response was muted. Compare this to the start of the pandemic when each case was met with headline news. Within these differing scenarios various groups have accused others of fear mongering. Fear mongering though, is one thing that each political group does particularly well.
When I grew up the cold war was in full swing and there was genuine fear of the communists and of nuclear war. I also grew up with other fears: I knew that certain areas of the city I grew up in were off limits, as were some pubs. And over the years and decades different things, objects, people, races, and political parties have been the enemy and something to be afraid of. From the communists in the 1970s to the Islamists of the noughties, to bizarrely almost, Polish immigrants as the Brexit vote approached, in the UK.
But let’s first look at fear and what it does to the brain, and this will also give us clues as to why it is used and abused in politics - and in less malicious situations can still misguide us.
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